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Research projects initiated and carried out at the Jaap Bakema Study Centre can lead to exhibitions, publications, discussions and specific partial studies related to the activities of Het Nieuwe Instituut and the research programme of Faculty of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology. The study centre also facilitates research by and with third parties. The activities of the Jaap Bakema Study Centre are socially relevant and generate discussion of current issues. It also contributes to fundamental research and knowledge development on the creative industry, design, culture and society.

Structuralism. Photo Johannes Schwartz

The Jaap Bakema Study Centre is a research centre, founded by Het Nieuwe Instituut and The Delft University of Technology. Het Nieuwe Instituut manages one of the largest architecture collections in the world. Delft University of Technology is internationally recognised for its distinguished research in the architectural field. Working together allows the two organisations to profit from each other’s expertise, resources and contacts. The Jaap Bakema Study Centre is based at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, and headed by Dirk van den Heuvel, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture TU Delft.

Platform for research findings

Het Nieuwe Instituut and Delft University of Technology collaborate to further expand the intellectual infrastructure focused on innovation and the exchange and export of knowledge. Historical materials from the archive of Het Nieuwe Instituut’s are placed in the service of current research and public discourse. The research of Delft University of Technology will strengthen the position of Het Nieuwe Instituut’s collection within a broad, international scholarly network. Het Nieuwe Instituut provides a platform for the research findings of Delft University of Technology, allowing these to be shared with the general public. In addition, the two institutes collaborate in the areas of collection management and digitization.

Dutch structuralism

The first joint research programme is a broadly conceived study of the history and contemporary relevance of Dutch structuralism, a movement that sought to return architecture to a human scale. The appreciation of heritage with respect to the reuse and transformation of postwar garden cities and 1970s suburbs will play a role in the research. The study will lead to various publications, exhibitions and conferences. The first public presentation was the dual exhibition Structuralism, in cooperation with Herman Hertzberger.

'Deconstruction'

Volume #51, November 2017

In the spring semester of 2017, the Jaap Bakema Study Centre welcomed the TU Delft Visiting Professors Lionel Devlieger and Maarten Gielen of the Brussels-based office Rotor. This publication documents an intensive ten-week workshop programme in which students imagined the potential for reuse of the legacy of post-war modernist buildings as well as some iconic and didactic contemporary projects. With contributions by Lionel Devlieger, Keller Easterling, Metahaven, Victor Muñoz Sanz, and Dirk van den Heuvel.

On March 18, the Jaap Bakema Study Centre will host the presentation of the book Jaap Bakema and the Open Society, the first extensive publication on the Dutch architect Jaap Bakema, his ideas and ideals for society at large.

Jaap Bakema

The study centre is named after Jaap Bakema (1914–1981), the internationally prominent, socially engaged Dutch architect. His Rotterdam-based firm Van den Broek and Bakema produced some of the most outstanding projects of the post-war period such as the Lijnbaan shopping centre in Rotterdam. Its archive is housed in Het Nieuwe Instituut’s collection. Jaap Bakema was also an eminent professor at the Faculty of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology. Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Jaap Bakema Study Centre curated Open: A Bakema Celebration, the Dutch entry for the fourteenth International Architectural Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia. Part of the exhibition was ‘Post Box for the Open Society’, an online platform for the exchange of ideas and designs on the subject of the open society.